Common Sense On My Nonsense

[sakon76]

This self-reflection brought to you by the letter "D," the number "7" and the fact that I had a bad (yes, bad) dream last night wherein my mother gave me a Dollfie for Christmas.

A good number of my friends here on lj, talented costumers and artists all, have Asian ball-jointed dolls and adore them. Once in a while I muse on the fact that I might like a doll myself. Fortunately this musing is followed sooner or later by a little voice inside my head waking up and giving me a slap upside the head, usually involving some if not all of the following arguments.

Point one: the things are hella expensive. I am perhaps one of the best definitions I know of "low-maintenance" or "cheap date." I have a hard time convincing myself to pay $4 a yard for fabric (unless it's linen; linen occupies its own special category in my fabric hierarchy), so I find paying hundreds to thousands of dollars for a doll to be ludicrous most of the time. I admit to being perfectly willing to spend that much on completing my '40s dishes set, or in eyeing my coveted All-Clad pots'n'pans, but those are something I use/would use every day. A doll would not be in the same category.

Point two: the classic "and if your friends all jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, would you do that too?" argument. Ah, mothers, don't we love them? I worry that I'd be getting a doll just because my friends have them. Peer pressure or "keeping up with the Joneses" is never the right reason to engage in an endeavor. Besides, dolls are hoshikage's thing. I don't need to copycat her and do everything she does.

Point three: I have too much stuff. I need to get rid of it, not get more!

Point four: do I really have the time to invest in a new toy when I don't have enough time for my hobbies as it is? Do I really want to invest that much time in entering into yet another hobby subculture?

Point five: where is the emotional attachment? I look at ABJDs once in a while on eBay, and, frankly, most of them don't look that attractive to me. For some of them I blame it on the J-Rock aesthetic where the dark circles under the eyes make them look dragged-out, because, really, do I need a doll that looks like it's been shooting heroin? And I already know that I'll never love the doll the way I love Abby, the rag doll I've had since I was two. Because you know what? Abby I can play with. ABJDs? Not so much. It'd pretty much be a dust trap: look, but do not touch.

Comments

[hoshikage.livejournal.com]

I'm certainly not going to argue or try and talk you into it; I would never advocate spending as much money as the doll hobby entails without it being something you'd really love for its own sake. I would never have gotten into it myself except those darn clever doll creators finally found a style that would actually "speak" to me. (Curse them!) Plus being able to sew stuff and sell it helps too.

I only wanted to comment on the last point as I found it so thoroughly ironic that one of the reasons I like ABJDs so much is that I can play with them, unlike the porcelain dolls or the dreadfully-unposeable Barbies I grew up with. Haha. Different opinions for different people, of course. ;) And I of course am like "Cookware? Dishes? No way!" in terms of spending money, so I don't think there's too much copycat danger. Each to their own thing. ;)

[toothycat]

Mine were about 50 quid each. They advertise comics on the table every convention and are so far unbreakable (well, they do come apart but it's easy to put them back together). And they're my characters - that's what they're for :)

I do understand what you mean about the big ones, but I love my little dolls. Having a 3D version of someone who's lived in your head for so long is very cool - in my twisted little world, anyway ^^

[ghilledhu.livejournal.com]

linen occupies its own special category in my fabric hierarchy

Heh. For me it's silk.

[sakon76.livejournal.com]

Silk, for me, is a five-minute drive away. Linen is an hour and parking money. Therefore linen trumps silk. :)

Someday, though, I'll find the "right" project that will involve me and silk velvet in the same place....

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I'm going to weigh in (sort of) on the side of the little voice of common sense. Do you really WANT one of those things, with a voice that drowns out the voice of reason?

Or, think of it this way: which of your hobbies or other life expenses would you be willing to stop spending money or time on to get the dolls?